Seeing Is Believing!

So I just turned 48 a few days ago. On the 21st to be exact. The photo on the right was taken that day. I can’t stop looking at it. Not because I’m vain or anything. But because that one photograph sums up everything I have achieved in the past year. The photo on the left was taken in 2009 when I was at my heaviest. Just after I had been diagnosed a diabetic. Looking back at my life then it seems it was almost inevitable that I would become diabetic. Poor diet. Lack of exercise. Serious weight gain. Becoming diabetic was a serious wake up call. It took me a while to hear that call. It was only when the doctor wanted to put me on a second medication that is linked with causing liver problems that I finally woke up and realized I had to do something about it.

So I took up running. And watched my diet. I have lost 35 lbs in the past year. Sometimes when I look in the mirror I can’t see the weight loss. I know I’ve lost weight. I know my stomach is a lot smaller, (I think I just have loose skin issues now which is really annoying because every other part of me is slim.) But the brain seems to take a while to catch up with the eyes. Judging from posts I’ve seen on the MyFitnessPal forums this seems to be a common phenomenon. But in the photo on the right I can SEE how much my face has changed. For me it sums up everything I’ve achieved in the past 12 months. It’s a face I haven’t seen in over 20 years. You see, I wasn’t always overweight. In fact, all my life up to my mid 20’s I’d actually been pretty skinny. I guess I slowed down, but didn’t change my eating habits to match. So the weight gained. Slowly at first. But in the past ten years I had a dramatic weight gain.

But now I see my old face looking back at me. A little older, perhaps. A few wrinkles starting to show. A few crows feet around the eyes. But it’s ME. The real me. Not the bloated puffy face I’ve had to look at for a while. It’s like looking at an old friend. And I like what I see. I like how I feel. I’m so much more confident now when out in public. This healthy lifestyle is amazing. I just wish I’d started twenty years ago when the weight started creeping on. I can’t change the past. But I can make sure the old me stays the new me for the rest of my life.